POLITICIANS NO LONGER SPEAK OF WASHINGTON: 5/8 Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy, by Nathaniel Philbrick.
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2023
⏱️ 12 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Travels-George-Search-Washington-Legacy/dp/0525562176/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing—Americans.
In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called “the infant woody country” to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures with his wife, Melissa, and their dog, Dora, Philbrick follows Washington’s presidential excursions: from Mount Vernon to the new capital in New York; a monthlong tour of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island; a venture onto Long Island and eventually across Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The narrative moves smoothly between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries as we see the country through both Washington’s and Philbrick’s eyes.
1921 CAROLINA ROOM MT. VERNON
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is |
| 0:04.3 | This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Bachelor |
| 0:10.4 | Nathaniel Philbrick, not Philbrick. His new book is Travels with George in search of |
| 0:15.5 | Washington and his legacy. George Washington, inaugurated President of the |
| 0:19.9 | United States in the spring of 1789 takes a series of trips to meet his people, also to |
| 0:27.8 | say thank you, also to create the presidency. So far in 1789 he's traveled in New England as far north is the |
| 0:36.4 | Kiddery Point now in Maine, then Massachusetts. He's also traveled to Long Island to visit, we think, and to thank we think, the spy ring that |
| 0:48.1 | was critical in his understanding of the war, the revolution. |
| 0:52.3 | He's also made it very clear that he wants to resolve the |
| 0:56.4 | conflicts that are developing in his cabinet between two personages, John Adams, the |
| 1:01.8 | vice president, who will become president, and Thomas Jefferson, the |
| 1:05.8 | Secretary of State who will become president, and others. |
| 1:09.3 | Alexander Hamilton. |
| 1:11.3 | Washington is, can't we all get a long guy. However, knowing that it's not possible |
| 1:16.7 | these trips provide him what you'd have to say robustness and we're about to take a |
| 1:22.3 | trip by sale to Newport. |
| 1:25.0 | Nat, why did Washington choose to go to Newport at this point? |
| 1:30.0 | Was it to get out of town? |
| 1:32.0 | This is August of 1790 get out of town to get away from |
| 1:37.1 | the conflicts something compelling him to travel to the state that didn't vote for him. |
| 1:44.0 | Right. Well, I think a lot of people today, if, you know, political |
| 1:47.3 | operatives would tell the president, the last place you want to go is a place like |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.